Potato Famine In Ireland During The 1840's

Although a blight affected the potato crops of Ireland during the 1840’s, the mass starvation was the result of British governmental policy, that forced many Irish to immigrate to America. Their immigration had many positive and negative effects on the American people and the economy.
Ireland was a country of poverty and nearly half of the families in rural areas were living in mud houses with no windows or furniture. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Ireland was not an industrialized country and their few industries were failing. There was not a fishing industry or an agricultural industry, and by 1835 there were three quarters of the laborers had no sort of employment. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, Bill of Rights in …show more content…
Most of the deaths were caused by starvation, but also due to disease. Many illnesses and infections spread throughout the land. Ireland had become a part of Great Britain in 1801, so the parliament knew about the disaster happening in Ireland. The British Parliament believed in “laissez faire” which is when the government interferes with the countries economy as little as possible. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, Bill of Rights in Action, 2010 (Volume 26, No.2)). Since the government believed in this economy system, they refused to stop the British landlords in Ireland from exporting out all the crops, that weren’t potatoes, they were selling to get money, instead of feeding …show more content…
With such big numbers in population, the Irish made impacts on many things in America, and the economy was one of them. According to James Barrett in the Daily Beast, when unions started to breach the lines of skill, race, gender, and ethnicity, it was most often the Irish activists taking the lead and pushing the protests. (James Barrett, The Daily Beast 2012). In 1850 the Irish Immigrants started a bank called Emigrant Savings and Loans and it was created to help the immigrants coming to America and serve the financial needs of the immigrant population. Within a short period of time it had become the seventh largest bank in the country (Emigrant Bank, Emigrant.com). Many of the Irish immigrants helped industrialize America even more. They worked in factories, manufacturing many things, but their work soon made some cities large centers of manufacturing. Many immigrants also helped expand the transportation industry such as railroads and the Erie Canal. They have influenced many people to fight for what they think is right and have made our culture and economy more diverse and open to immigrants and people from different